Ahmed Musa: Why the Nigerian Speedster Is A Smart Buy For Leicester

Leicester City are in advanced talks and could seemingly confirm the signing of CSKA Moscow forward Ahmed Musa in the coming days.

Reports from Moscow- according to BBC Sport- suggest that the Premier League champions are set to sign the Nigerian international for an undisclosed fee which will supposedly be a club record- more than the £9.7M the club paid for Andre Kramaric in January 2015.

With Ron-Robert Zieler, Luis Hernandez and Nampalys Mendy already confirmed as Leicester’s summer acquisitions, Claudio Ranieri has sent an astounding message of intent that despite winning the League title, he will go to the ends of the earth to strengthen his squad.

Not that many people are familiar with Ahmed Musa, but then again who knew the likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante?

If there is one thing that the Foxes have proven to us- save for never giving up- then it is their incisive ability to harness and transform relatively unknown players to proven winners.

The lowdown

Born in Jos, Nigeria on 14th October 1992, Ahmed Musa started playing football at the latter stages of his teenage hood.

In fact, Musa’s first stint was at his local side GBS Football Academy in 2008. While at the academy, he had a run of several loan spells in Nigerian clubs before moving to VVV-Venlo in the Eerste Divisie [Second tier of Dutch football] in 2010.

Nonetheless, his highly awaited breakthrough came after he joined CSKA Moscow in 2012. The 23-year old went on to score 54 goals in 168 appearances for the Russian side- an overriding reason why Leicester are willing to break the bank for the forward.

First off, it would be quite partial and unfair to suggest that Ranieri is only bringing in forwards considering other signings this summer are a goalkeeper [Zieler], a defender [Hernandez] and a midfielder [Mendy].

Be that as it may, every action has a reaction and the landing of Ahmed Musa could only suggest that one of the strikers could face the exit door before the end of the summer transfer window.

Jamie Vardy is virtually untouchable so that automatically rules him out of the picture which inevitably leaves Ulloa and Okazaki vulnerable.

Okazaki proved to be a viable utility forward having scored some timely yet still spectacular goals to boost Leicester’s Premier League cause last season, which puts Ulloa on the spot since he wasn’t as impressive.

Then again having all four strikers can only do good to their endeavors with the improbable Champions League and congested Premier League fixtures.

Furthermore, Musa is just as good on the flanks which will be a mare for defenders given his quick feet and explosive pace.